Bell leads England to win

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Big Ben has fallen silent for maintenance work and its bongs will not be heard again until next month - but Ian Bell filled the void for clock-a-hoop England yesterday.

He top-scored with 79, held two diving catches and pulled off a run-out to have skipper Paul Collingwood purring over another "perfect" day against India at Edgbaston.

In going 2-1 up in the NatWest Series with a polished 42-run win, England left behind the midsummer shambles when they lost to a pub team called the West Indies and Mirror columnist Sir Ian Botham admitted we were so bad at oneday cricket even the Eskimos could beat us.

Now it is the Indians who haven't igloo how to play this slap-and-tickle lark, and Collingwood crowed last night: "I described our performance at the Rose Bowl as near-perfect, and in many ways I was just as satisfied with this one.

"It's still early days, and I'm not going to get carried away, but when you take over as captain you try a new approach, and we tend to play our best one-day cricket when we play with a fearless attitude."

England could have been forgiven for sinking to the occasion when powerhouse Freddie Flintoff (knee) and allround sidekick Dimitri Mascarenhas (bruised thumb) were ruled out before start of play. But they produced a disciplined, tenacious display in a partisan atmosphere where, as man-of-the-match Bell conceded, England felt as if they were playing away from home.

The Warwickshire batsman said: "It was nice to put in a performance on my home ground as my previous best score here for England was 21. Maybe I'd been trying too hard.

"It was a full house, a great atmosphere to play in, and I was happy to play in a relaxed manner and get us through to the end of our 50 overs."

Bell aside, there were notable contributions from Jimmy Anderson, whose 3-32 included one over being carted for 16, and skipper Collingwood produced important runs, wickets, catches and nerveless leadership.

Of yesterday's 22,000 crowd, around 70 per cent were supporting India, and in the Eric Hollies stand - once a Barmy Army stronghold - the Bhaji Army taunted outnumbered Brummies with a football-style chorus of "You're supposed to be at home."

Without Flintoff's "wow" factor, England could have been forgiven for curling up their toes, but they made up for the shortfall of stardust through sheer guts and application.

Sustained more by nimble running between the wickets than dashing blades, England's 281-8 was around par for a slow pitch. Bell's 79 from 89 balls included two sixes and took his aggregate to 269 runs from three innings in the series, a triumph of authentic cricket shots over indiscriminate slogging.

Had any of his colleagues hung around longer, England would have reached 300: but it was not until Chris Tremlett cleared the pavilion with a monster 85-yard six that they gave it more tap than the water board.

India's reply was baulked by England's parsimony with the new ball, and they were behind the clock from the moment danger man Sachin Tendulkar carved Anderson straight to Collingwood.

Rude health was restored by Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, whose one-day savvy spans 621 caps between them. But no sooner had Dravid made an attractive 50 and Ganguly became only the fourth man to score 11,000 one-day international runs, both fell to Tremlett.

Mahendra Dhoni was caught by Collingwood, Yuvraj Singh stranded by Bell's throw and Anderson delivered the final flourish by bowling Munaf Patel.

With Flintoff expected to return at Old Trafford on Thursday, England have a wonderful chance to go 3-1 up and ensure Bell's heroics were not a waste of chime.